


Androids Don’t Dream (And so have no requiems for them)

by im_ashamed



Category: RWBY
Genre: (depends on how vol 4 shapes up), Canon Typical Violence, F/F, ambiguous death, vol 3 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-29 19:29:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7696528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_ashamed/pseuds/im_ashamed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As far as Penny knew she had only two states. ‘On’ where her brain functioned and she could decide how to use her body, and her body would do as she said, and ‘Off’ where her brain did not function and her body could not be affected unless by an outside force. Her father said that off was the same as sleeping, and when she began to protest her nightly off time, he explained to her that this rest was necessary for her brain as well as her machinery.</p><p>Penny asked him to explain it three times before she allowed him to shut her off that night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Androids Don’t Dream (And so have no requiems for them)

As far as Penny knew she had only two states. ‘On’ where her brain functioned and she could decide how to use her body, and her body would do as she said, and ‘Off’ where her brain did not function and her body could not be affected unless by an outside force. Her father said that off was the same as sleeping, and when she began to protest her nightly off time, he explained to her that this rest was necessary for her brain as well as her machinery.

  
Penny asked him to explain it three times before she allowed him to shut her off that night. She still didn’t understand why her brain needed to stop working. She had memories of all her days before she was declared sentient, as well as the time after, and though she felt little difference between the two, she knew she wanted her brain to keep working. She wanted it to work for as long as it could. For some reason it made a difference, and that difference allowed her to explore the world and continue to be turned on every morning. 

  
This was not something she had worried about.

  
The idea that her body might be exposed to something it could not withstand while her brain remained intact was not a scenario she had entertained. 

  
She watched her arm fly from her torso, spinning twice in mid-air. Her pain receptors told her something was wrong, but it wasn’t the sensation she was accustomed to. She traced the familiar neural pathway that told her arm to move to keep her from falling, even though she knew it would be no help. 

  
The sensation of hitting the hard arena floor was nothing in comparison.

Several automatic systems kicked in at once, then stopped as a graphic flashed before her eyes: EMERGENCY SHUT DOWN. 

  
A numbness started at the points of incision and spread across her body. The arena went hazy, and the sounds of the crowd-so distinct as her own steel wires sliced into her body-became a blur. 

  
Then another image came to her. It was not computer generated, nor was it something she purposefully pulled from her memory bank.

  
It was a thought, and it glowed brighter and brighter as her senses faded out and the world around her went dark.

  
It was her and her friend Ruby. Holding her like she had after she helped to win the second round. Ruby was stroking her back and telling her was going to be alright. She said she would be on again in a second and everything would be back to normal. 

  
Just as Penny began to wonder how she was generating this image when she was supposed to be off, it disappeared. She went with it.


End file.
